The Wins from Losing

#2 has been on a basketball team this year that has lost every game they've played.  I don't mean just a little loss, I mean HUGE losses.  It's been a bit painful to watch.  My heart just breaks for those boys each time a game ends.  But none quite as much as this last game.

Let me first share that the game before the last one was against the only team they truly felt they could win against.  They were all geared up.  They, like in most of their games, started out ahead.  As they fell behind, the wind went out of the sails, and the loss became, yet again, grotesque.  They felt they were just done for the season because there was NO WAY they were going to win against the last two teams (they play the last game this afternoon)--Southridge and Westview.

This past game, the one against Southridge, we went into thinking the boys'd give it their best effort, and we'd lose, and it'd be done.  This was not so.

They started out with Aloha scoring first and then they kind of held each other off.  Aloha was ahead but by the end of the quarter Southridge had scored 7 to our 5.

Throughout the game, the two teams stayed neck and neck.  It was amazing to watch.  I yelled and hollered like never before.  So did the other parents.  It was so fun to watch.

By the end of the game, Aloha was ahead, but Southridge snuck in three more points.  Ugh!  They were ahead by one point. 

With about ten seconds left, #2 shot and made it, but just before the ball left his hands, the coach called a time out, so the refs called that and the shot didn't count.  With three seconds left, the other team called a time out.  Aloha was in possession of the ball, but we failed to make the shot, so Aloha lost by one point.

The other coaches and parents, as we spoke with them, admitted that Aloha had out-played Southridge that afternoon.  It was an amazing game.  I was so proud of those boys.  They had proven something to themselves.  I was sad for their loss, but it was so overshadowed by the skills they'd learned from all of those losses.  The most important skill they had gained was how to lose gracefully.  They had been educated by their adversity.

Today is their final game.  I don't expect a win.  Of course, I'd love to see that happen, but I expect to see the same team with a different attitude.  They now know they have it in themselves to win.  They, more than anything, deserve a win.

So, yes, I expect to lose my voice today.  I expect to have my arms aching and shaking from all the clapping I plan on doing.  No matter what happens, these boys have proven to me that there are great things to be gained from bad outcomes; from what we don't want to have happen to us.